Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

(clockwise) Mia Fey, Maya Fey, Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth

I’ve always been a fan of the Ace Attorney games since Day 1. Well, I consider Day 1 as sometime during spring in 2007, starting with the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. These followed by Justice for All, Trials and Tribulations, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (featuring a new main character/defense attorney, Apollo Justice). If you’re one of those import gaming purists and have never heard of the small hype of a visual novel game taking place in court, it’s the Gyakuten Saiban (Turnabout Trials) series.

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• Currently Drinking: Coconut Chai Tea
• Mood: Tired

WHAT IS LENT?
Lent is a period in the Christian Liturgical year in which (certain) Christians prepare the commemoration of the Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The preparation includes prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It’s pretty much the same as Ramadan for the Islamic Religion, except that we abstain from meat and meat products on Ash Wednesday, every Fridays during the period, and on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday during Holy Week. We also abstain from one of our usual habits (for some reason, it’s usually a type of favorite food that we like to eat to one of our everyday habits, like playing videogames, shopping and going to the mall, and all that). Depending on the Christian sect (Catholic, Orthodox, etc.), the Lent period usually lasts for forty days and forty nights.

Before Ash Wednesday, there are some nations where they have a huge celebration of going “all out” on Tuesday, such as Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, Carnival in South America, and Pancake Day in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. They do this because they know it would be their last day of “going all out” before they abstain in to excessive habits the next day.

More on Lent here: Wikipedia – Lent

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• Current Location: Work (San Francisco)
• Currently Drinking: White Cranberry Peach juice
• Currently Eating: Crunchitos
• Mood: Sleepy

As of late, I have been undergoing through thorough training along with the rest of our department regarding the very popular and important concept of environmental sustainability. First module from last week we learned about the world as of today, its conditions, and all the problems that caused all the pollution and the signs that the earth would be dying out of its resources. For next week we’ll be covering industrial ecology and biomimicry.

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• Current Location: Work (Levi Strauss & Co.)
• Currently Eating: Sobe Lifewater Cherimoya (Atis) Punch
• Currently Listening: Pandora Radio Doo-Wop Channel
• Mood: Sleepy

I’ve only read a few passages, but I’ve been enjoying the book from the beginning. This ancient Japanese literary piece, known as The Pillow Book was written by an imperial court gentlewoman named Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting serving the empress sometime in the 10th-11th Century Heian Period in Japan. During this period, it was the era of cultural flourishing all over Japan. Sort of like the Renaissance Period in Europe where artists of various forms as well as scholars and philosophers promote a brand-new culture in their everyday life through the visual arts to the literary arts. Japan held the record of having one of the very earliest, if not the earliest novel ever written in history, starting with Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) written by another imperial court lady-in-waiting, Murasaki Shikibu.

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• Mood: Hungry

PRECAUTION NOTICE:

If you are sensitive to direct rant blog entries in general, the door leading to the exit is at that red X button at the top right corner or at the browser tab itself. If you are sensitive to a direct rant blog entry that may possibly be directed at you (though all of my rants are always general anyway), you can do the same with that X button. If you are looking for a good laugh, you can proceed to reading this, but I doubt if it would make you laugh.

But if you have an open mind, then please feel free to read. It may somehow be directed at you, maybe not. Either case, keep in mind that I’m not out for blood for this one, but rather, just another person writing her own opinions based on observation. I’m not hating on people, therefore I’d like to hear your opinions too and share your words regarding the subject matter. Good discussions and debates are always welcome, but please do not take this personally.

Lately in the Japanese entertainment industry there have been many foreign talent, or gaijin tarento to some people as of late. I’m not talking about Japan-born and/or U.S. military brats like Crystal Kay or may-j or BENI, but I’m talking about the ones who were born outside Japan that happened to have the opportunity to succeed in the Japanese entertainment industry. It’s only natural for many of us as Hollywood always has a lot of foreign talent making it in the American entertainment industry from year to year, but when it comes to the industry in other countries, most notably Asia (in this case, Japan), it seems that foreign fans (who are NOT from Japan) seem to get negative comments about these gaijin tarento.

So I ask myself, why? In fact, I ask myself more of a so what? rather than why are so many foreign fan(girls) are being haters towards foreign (as in non-Japanese or non-Japan-born) talent? Now, I will have to admit something that’s quite factual that many (and yes, many) fan girls around would want to have their chance to be on the Japanese entertainment spotlight for God knows what reason. Most likely, they want to get close to their favorite idol or something, but if you think about it a bit further, Japan (or just Japanese showbiz in general) have some kind of an invisible charm that ensnares the foreign eyes in to something new, something cool.

That’s just how it is, people. Japan, or rather, the people in the industry, are very predictable when it comes to recruiting foreign talent and make them famous in the industry. Not all minds are the same with each other. It’s like in Hollywood where someone gets “too” popular and the “general public” (mainly girls… again) start to do the hating on that someone simply because that someone is becoming a lot successful in that person’s career. Sure, each person has their own preferences, but now it would be like if one person is hating on that particular personality, then everyone else starts hating too. I mean, really. We may not like what we see, but this is reality. It’s just how things go, sadly.

I mean, really. Why not use whatever time you’ve got to spend actually flailing over something you like instead of leaving hate comments on some community journal on a news article about a particular foreign talent? Apparently the industry has seen something special within these individuals and the haters didn’t.  Seriously if you’re annoyed by seeing all these foreign talents in news articles, seriously, just ignore them. Those who are getting annoyed with all this hating going on would truly appreciate it. Everyone’s different as well as their opinions, but jeez louise, the hating is really unnecessary.

It’s late night here and I’m not thinking straight. Maybe I’ll do a bit of editing with this entry when I get to it. If not, I’ll just move on and leave it as is.

Eh.

• Currently Drinking: AriZona Peach Iced Tea
• Currently Listening: Blame the Other Duck by SNRG
• Currently Reading: Badass by Ben Thompson
• Mood: sleepy

First up to the peeps of the U.S. of A, I want to wish all of you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Second, to the peeps of the AMNOS tribe, let’s all greet the O a (belated) Happy 29th Birthday!

Third, Monday is the last day of NaNoWriMo! Though I already won the challenge, my story is not yet finished! I hoped to finish everything by that day so I can finally rest and move on.

Fourth, TFL approved my application for the Samurai High School Fanlisting! Once after my novel is done I am seriously gonna get down and dirty in building this site. I may make it in to a mini-informational site, so watch out! The more I’m seeing this series episode by episode, the more I feel like I’m getting PWNED. It’s not because of the SURF DUDE or the Senorito, but the overall storyline is really well worth watching. I love the characters— all of them— including the self-centered cop and the bitchy principal.

Fifth, the menu for our Thanksgiving Dinner would be the gobble-gobble bird, stuffing, mashed potatoes, daing na bangus, pancit, lumpia, sinigang, pinakbet, rice, and pumpkin pie and more various Filipino desserts for dessert. Now that’s what I call Filipino-fusion style Thanksgiving!

Sixth, the folks are here. Time for me to sign off.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU’VE GOT and not moan in sadness for what you don’t have.

• Current Location: Home
• Currently Drinking: Iced Mandarin Red Tea
• Mood: Thankful ^_^